Wales' top medical expert says it is likely that the country is heading into another wave of coronavirus, but he is "hopeful" draconian restrictions will not need to be imposed. Dr Frank Atherton was speaking as concerns are rising about an increase in infection rates across the UK.
The latest figures published on Friday, June 17, show that there is a significant rise in cases in Wales and across the UK that that total figures remain at a low level compared to other points in the pandemic. Dr Atherton said this morning that the figures in Wales are "creeping up" and they were looking closely at rising infection rates in Portugal, after remaining low for several weeks and significant fall in rates.
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But he told BBC Radio Wales on Friday: "That tide seems to have turned as it has many times. There are new sub variants of the Omicron lineage which we're seeing across Europe in places like Portugal.
"We have seen a slight increase recently in the NHS with people coming in for treatment with coronavirus. Having said that I'm still optimistic that the vaccine programme and the vaccines which have been so successful will help to have weakened the link between community transmission and the direct harms."
He added: "I suspect we are moving into a further wave. And I'm very hopeful, though, that we will not need to reimpose some of those rather more draconian measures. But it just highlights the fact that we're probably going to go through cycles of this.
"It's like a rubber ball and keeps on bouncing back. And this is going to continue to happen. And so we need to be willing and ready as communities to put in place our own measures was not through legislation."
Dr Atherton said that people should use what they have learnt through the pandemic, and maintain social distancing, wearing face masks and self isolating if they suffer from any respiratory symptoms.
He said: "I think that needs to be embedded in the way we live as society in the future. I would anticipate, you know, cycles every few months or every three to five weeks. That's all assuming that nothing you know, nasty comes out of the woodwork.
"We always knew that this virus continues to evolve. And our great hope, of course, is that it doesn't evolve into something which can evade us and can lead to another huge spike.
"That's always something we need to guard against. We need to have better surveillance and we are working to build that up here in Wales. But my expectation is that there will be further waves, but hopefully not bringing as much harm as well."
Infection rates are thought to have risen in several parts of the UK, with infections on the rise in London, the north west, and the south east of England.
According to sister site The Mirror, there are also early signs of a rise in eastern England, with an area in the East Midlands seeing the largest surge in infections in the last two weeks, with cases up 223 per cent. Experts worry latest mutations, such as the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, may have evolved to infect lung tissue, as did the earliest forms of the virus, making them more dangerous.
The two mutations, first detected in Africa in January and February - were designated as variants of concern in the UK on May 20, but the majority of infections across the UK continue to be of the BA.2 strain. The UK Health Security Agency is also monitoring BA.5.1 - an offshoot of BA.5 - and the BA.2.12.1 subvariant, which remains the dominant strain in the US.
